Love or Hate?
by Marshmallow Addict
Summary: It's Lily and James's final year at Hogwarts. Lily finally starts to tolerate James and James sees this as a chance to make Lily fall for him. But to put this plan into action, his pride is not going to be the only thing to suffer. But will it all be worth it at the end?
1. Chapter 1 : Returning to Hogwarts

**Hello! Nice to meet you!(says with a huge smile and tries to look good, but fails) It's my first Harry Potter fanfiction, and I decided to write about LEJP. Rated T. JUST IN CASE.**

 **I'm afraid the first chapter won't be that much fun, it's more of a starting point for the story. But I promise, pinky-swear, that it'll get better. So give this poor story a chance, please?**

 **Disclaimer : I don't Harry Potter. It belongs to J.K. Rowling.**

 **Now on with the story!**

Chapter 1 : Returning to Hogwarts

Her eyes opened with a flutter. She looked at the clock, which read 7:00am. Perfect.

Lily Evans was not well-known for waking up early, but today was an exception. It was the day that she would return to her beloved Hogwarts. She took a second to embrace the warmth of her bed, then kicked her blanket off her. It fell to the ground and was quickly placed back on to the bed, neatly.

She made her way to the bathroom and stepped into the shower. After splashing water on her face, she started washing her hair. When she was done, she dried her hair with swish flick of her wand. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and she smiled widely. Lily got out and was greeted by her sister.

"Why'd you take so long." Petunia croaked, her grumpy morning mood adding to her dislike of Lily. She frowned at the redhead, but this particular redhead was in a very good mood. Lily smiled brightly at her sister and apologized. She flounced back to her room and dressed into some decent clothes.

She raced down the stairs and said her good-mornings to her parents. Just then, a sweet smell wafted into her nostrils, which made Lily look around for the source of this delicious aroma. She noticed the pancakes stack high on a plate. She sat on her chair and dug into the syrupy heaven. It was the homemade-batch-kind, not the ones made with store-selling pancake batter.

"Mmmmmmm." she moaned. This day was starting out nicely. She cleared her platter and thanked her mother for the breakfast. "It was great!" she added. She went upstairs to gather all her things and organize them in her multiple suitcases. When she finished with this, it was 30 minutes to eleven. She grabbed the handles of her bags and walked down the stairs, careful so she would not fall. She spotted her father in the downstairs bathroom humming as he brushed his teeth.

"Hurry up!" she rushed her him, who was taking his sweet time. In Lily's opinion, at least. "Daddy, I can't be late! It would be so embarrassing if the Head Girl was late, no?" Her father chuckled and assured Lily that they would get there on time. While her father finished up brushing his teeth, Lily checked her appearance in the mirror.

"Lily dear! Be careful, all right? I'm sorry I can't go to the train station with you, I've got tea with Mrs. Lauren." Her mother apologized from the kitchen. Lily yelled back that it was alright. It was okay, she told herself. She was in 7th year, she didn't need her mum to follow her to the train station. But a small part of her was disappointed.

Soon, Lily and her father were in the car and they were driving to the train station. For the most part of the car ride, the two were silent. Lily was excited to return to Hogwarts, but it was her last year and it gave her heart a pang of sorrow. She dismissed it right away and pinned her Head Girl badge to her chest.

"Do you know who the head boy is?" Her father asked, breaking the silence. To be honest, he didn't care as long as the boy did not bother Lily. He hoped it was not the boy Lily kept telling him about, James Potter. She had told him that he was an immature, stuck-up, toe-rag.

"No, but I hope he is a nice, smart boy." Lily replied. As far as she knew, there were no nice, smart boys in Griffindor. There were only ignorant bastards, like James Potter, for instance.

The car came to a stop and when Lily looked out the windows, she could see that they have arrived at their destination. She got out of the car and walked briskly to purchase her ticket, her father walking side-by-side with her.

The people working at the ticket booth were witches, so Lily did not get stares from them for asking for a 9 3/4 platform ticket. She stepped over to the pillar between platform 9 and platform 10. As she was about to say goodbye to her father, someone tapped on her shoulders.

Lily turned around and found a messy haired boy with glasses.

"Hello Lily." The boy said with a quirky grin. Lily recognized him as the ignorant bastard she was thinking of, just a few minutes ago. She stared at him and noticed that he had grown taller over the summer. He was definitely in shape, too, judging by his wide shoulders. Not that she noticed it, or anything.

James turned to Lily's father. "You must be Mr. Evans. I'm James Potter, one of Lily's many, many friends from Hogwarts." James introduced himself and he took his hand out of his pocket. Mr. Evans peered suspiciously at James, but shook his hand.

Lily could not believe that James, James Potter was introducing himself to her father. Who did he think he was? Lily glared at him and continued inspecting him. His hair had gotten a bit shorter and if it was possible, more chaotic. He had his chest puffed out slightly and Lily's eyes came to a stop at the badge pinned to James's chest.

"You're head boy?" Lily exclaimed. No, this was probably one of his tricks and she was not falling for it. But the look on her face said otherwise. James promptly nodded. Nope, she was not buying this absurd crap.

"Now, if you didn't notice, the train is leaving soon, so we must hurry." James announced. Lily looked at her watch. It was 10:56. The train left at 11. They had 4 minutes left.

"Dad, I've got to go! I'm sorry! See you in a few months!" Lily cried out. She gave her father a hasty hug and she ran into the pillar. James went in after her. Lily got to the other side and did not hesitate to board the train. As she entered through the door, panting for breath, Professor McGonagall placed a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Why are you running, Miss Evans? Heavens, you look like a hooligan." Professor McGonagall addressed Lily. Some of the younger kids snickered. James got in as well and stood next to Lily. "As you might be aware of, you two are the head boy and girl." she continued.

"Wait, he wasn't joking?!" Lily asked, bewildered. Professor McGonagall nodded. "Oh Merlin." Lily muttered.

"You two will follow me, we have quite a bit to discuss." Professor McGonagall finished and she walked away. Lily could do nothing but follow the teacher and shoot James glares which he happily returned with a smile.

"Looks like we'll be working together this year." James whispered to her, putting emphasis on the word 'together.' Lily frowned, but muttered nothing in return. She peered inside the compartments as she passed them. There were many familiar faces and some gave her a small wave. Soon, Professor McGonagall came to a halt in front of a vacant compartment labeled 'Professors Only.' She went in and the two students followed.

Professor McGonagall sat down and started lecturing them on the importance of the Head students and what they would do this year. Lily and James sat on the seats across the professor. The lecture went on and on, and while Lily was listening carefully, processing everything the professor said, James picked his fingernails.

"Wait, we share dorms?" Lily burst out, interrupting Professor McGonagall. James, who had obviously not been paying attention, looked up from his fingers and stared at the professor. James smirked at Lily, and Lily thought it was kind of attractive, she would never admit that, though.

"Yes, Miss Evans and Mr. Potter? Please close your mouth, you'll attract flies ." Professor McGonagall answered, annoyed at Lily for cutting her off. This peculiar teacher was known for her sharp tongue. Lily's eyes opened wider at the professor's confirms. No, they could not be sharing dorms, they were different genders!

As Lily was about to make a speech on the importance of privacy, Professor McGonagall stopped her. "Of course, there will be spells cast on the rooms. For example, Mr. Potter cannot come into Miss Evans's room, unless Miss Evans wishes for it. And there will be separate bathrooms for each of you."

Lily sighed with relief. Even though she was not looking forward to sharing a dorm with Potter, it would be nice to sleep peacefully without the rather loud whispers from the other Griffindor girls. She looked at James for his reaction, and she could see that he was ecstatic. Professor McGonagall went on, until the train whistle could be heard, indicating that they have arrived.

Lily and James both pulled out their school robes and put them on, on top of their clothes. Professor McGonagall did not see this as a sign to restrain from talking for a moment and continued.

"Your first job is to lead the students into the castle by carriages, in which you two shall be riding in, too. And to lead the students, I strongly recommend riding in the first carriage." she declared. Then, she stepped out of the compartment and disapparated. Lily stared at the spot where the Professor was. She let out a sigh, and this time, it was not because of relief. James grinned cheekily at her and grabbed her hand.

"You heard McGonagall, we have to escort the students to the castle. Thank goodness we aren't escorting the first years. They freak me out with their little height." James told Lily as he pulled her outside. Lily giggled and she immediately stopped. "Lily Evans does not giggle." she thought to herself. "Especially in front of Potter."

Lily let herself be pulled for a few seconds, then she regained control over her body. She pulled her hand out of James's grip. "Merlin, he's strong." she thought. She shouted instructions to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th years. But the excited chatter of the students made it impossible for her to be heard.

"Listen up, you imbeciles!" James roared. Lily flinched at his loud voice, but recited the instructions to them once again. And this time, she was heard and they followed obediently. She muttered a thank you to him, and he responded with a grin. "Doesn't this guy stop smiling?" she thought, frowning at him.

Lily caught the eye of her two best friends, Samantha and Alice, and she gestured them to come. James did the same with his friends, Sirius, Remus, and Peter.

"So, as heads, we have to ride in the first carriage." Lily started.

"And we want you guys to join us, eh?" James finished. Lily scowled at James for finishing her sentence. He honestly could not get more annoying. Lily went inside the carriage, hoping that there would not be enough room for the boys. It was bigger than she thought, and everyone else seemed to recognize it, too. They all followed, one by one.

"Finishing sentences, are we?" Sirius taunted with a smirk, his eyebrows disappeared up his hair. He chose to sit across Lily. James came in and plopped down on the seat next to the fuming redhead.

"Yes, we've gotten rather close. I guess you can say that she's my girlfriend." James played along. Samantha rolled her eyes, she was a smart enough to tell that this was an act. On the other hand, Alice's eyes widened and her chin dropped, making her open her mouth widely, which was not an attractive look on her. Alice was rather gullible. Very clever, yet very gullible.

"No. In your dreams, Potter" Lily said firmly, refusing to play along in the act.

"As a matter of fact, I have dreamt about it." James announced to the group and everyone laughed. Except for Lily, of course. She felt a blush rising up, fortunately no one seemed to detect the pink in her cheeks.

Everyone else started talking with one another, and Lily took this chance to tune herself out of the conversations. She chose to look at the scenery. Had she not been giving the outside view all her attention, she would have seen that James was staring at her with a vague look on his face. But she was looking out the window, oblivious to everything else, thus she did not detect James's eyes boring into her.

"She's bloody beautiful." James thought as the wind tossed Lily's hair this way and that way. He knew that she was not happy about him being head boy. He couldn't blame her, he had annoyed her since first year. And to be fair, he couldn't help himself! He had loved her from the moment he saw her, and at that young age, boys tended to annoy the girls they took a fancy to. And when he did grow up, he had gotten so used to teasing her, that he couldn't stop. He would do anything to get the smallest attention from her, and if he got that attention by irking her, he had no reason to stop.

This went on for who know how long, and when the carriage finally stopped, Lily stood up to march outside. It took a moment for James to snap out of his trance-like state and chase after her. Lily was now leading the students inside the castle, and James ran to catch up with her. He bumped into some younger students, but he did not bother to apologize. He simply wasn't the kind of person to say sorry.

When he caught up with her, he let his hand gently rest on Lily's shoulder. She brushed it away. Then, he tried to snake his arm through hers. She shot him a deathly glare and her eyes seemed to say, "If you do that one more time, I'll burn you to oblivion." James obeyed her silent command.

Lily didn't know why James was chasing after her. It's not that he wasn't handsome or popular, he was both. She knew that he could have dozens of other girls if he wanted. But he chose to chase _her_. Why? She decided to question him later.

Lily and James led the students into the Great Hall. They sat down according to their houses, Lily searched for her friends in the big hall and she caught their eyes. She rushed over to them and she took the seat that her friends have saved for her, which was the seat between them. She smiled at them to express her gratitude and looked around. Everyone was staring at her chest, and Lily was about to say something about perverts when she realized they weren't staring at her breasts, but her head girl badge.

Some scowled with envy, while others gave her looks of respect. Lily felt her shoulders tighten as she felt the sudden urge to sink into a small hole in the ground. She felt her cheeks getting hot, but to her relief, the headmaster started talking. Everyone shifted their attention to Dumbledore.

"-and now, I presume that you are bored with my endless rambling. So there will be no need to talk any longer, since I will not be heard by many. You may all start eating." Headmaster Dumbledore finished. With a twirl of his wand, food appeared on the hundreds of plates. Lily, who did not get the chance to purchase any snacks on the train, hungrily dug into the food. When she had enough to eat, she took her wand out for a refill of her water. As she was about to utter the spell, someone pressed some ice water to her cheek.

Lily flinched with surprise and she turned her head back to see the person with the water. It was James.

"Need water?" He asked. Lily refused it rudely and drank Alice's water instead. Then she apologized for her lack of manners. Alice scooted a bit to the side and motioned for James to sit in her seat. He happily squished himself into the small space. Some boys at the table started a conversation with James about Quidditch.

To Alice's dismay, James didn't strike a conversation with Lily. She willingly gave her seat up for James and what does he do? He talks about Quidditch. Boys were so thick-headed. She wanted Lily to see how great a guy James is. They were meant for each other! Disappointed, Alice gripped each of Lily and Samantha's hand and pulled them up.

"Shall we go and settle in?" Alice suggested. She saw that Samantha had not finished eating and noodles hung limply from her mouth.

"Hey, I was still eating!" Samantha complained. Alice let go of her hand so she could resume eating. Samantha sat back in her seat and gave her plate of noodles her full, unoccupied attention. While Samantha ate, Lily explained her sleeping arrangements to them. James nodded enthusiastically, confirming everything Lily had said.

"So you guys sleep in the same dorms?" Alice asked. This was too juicy for her own good. Lily turned red and James confirmed it by saying yes. Lily quickly added that they slept in different rooms and started lecturing Alice about privacy and the importance of seperation when it came to people with different genders. Realizing she was rambling, Lily shut her mouth. She said goodbye to Alice and she went up to the head dorm at a tremendous speed with James at her heels.

 **Thanks for reading and please review! :-)**


	2. Chapter 2 : Couple Names?

**Hi! I'm back! First of all, I want to thank SSB-CRAZYBUDGIEPOTTERHEAD for her/his review! Thanks so much! You do not know how much it means to me! Kudos for your name :)**

 **Disclaimer : I don't own Harry Potter, the amazing J.K. Rowling does.**

Chapter 2 : Couple Names?

"Lily! Wait up! How are you so fast!" James yelled after her. Wow. "She could be amazing at Quidditch if she wanted." he thought. He saw Lily stop. This gave him the time to catch up to her.

"Why'd you stop?" James panted. Lily looked down at her feet ashamed. "You don't know where the heads dorm is, do you?" he asked her, his breathing returning to normal.

"Well do you know?" Lily demanded as she tried to shift the embarrassment to James. He nodded his head up and down. "How?" she asked.

"6 years of running away from Filch does help with one's navigating skill." James answered. "Now, if you'll be so kind to accompany me to the dorms." He offered his arm to her. She pushed it away, and James could not stop himself from being a slight bit disappointed.

"Lead the way, General." Lily joked, oblivious to his disappointment. It didn't matter anyway, his disappointment towards her vanished as she uttered the 5 words. He led her the opposite way they came and soon enough, they were in front of a portrait of a man and woman each eating an apple.

"So you guys are the heads." The man roared. He had a stubby brown beard on his chin and a Pirate hat on his head. "Long time no see, Potter." he barked at James. James did a slight wave. The man's booming voice seemed to shake the ground.

"Be quiet, Jack. You _are_ the heads, right? You must set the password." the woman said with a warm smile. She had choppy blond hair and was plump.

"Now?" Lily asked. The woman nodded. Lily looked to James for ideas. James shrugged.

"Lames?" James offered. When Lily stared at him with a questioning look, he explained that is was their names morphed together. The woman in the painting clapped her hands happily and asked if it was their couple name. Lily immediately said no. "What about Jily?" he tried again. Lily vetoed his idea once again. She turned to the woman in the painting and said that they weren't together.

"Would Gryffindor meet your standards, by any chance?" James attempted, and for the first time, he was met with a nod from Lily. She said it out loud once, to try it out, and found that it was nice and comfortable. After all, it was both students' house. James smiled happily at the fact that Lily agreed with him for once.

The man and woman asked them if they were sure, and Lily certified it with a smile and a brisk nod of her head.

"All right, sweetheart." the woman said, she hoped she hadn't made the two uncomfortable. They just looked too cute together. She apologized for her mistake and James told her that she was welcome to do it whenever she wanted, which earned him an flustered glare from Lily. To change the subject, she introduced herself as Julie and told them that it would be a good idea to change passwords once in a while.

Lily went into the head common room. Since it was meant for two people, it was smaller than the Gryffindor common room, but it fit to her liking. There was a fireplace, and a couch. The room looked a bit bare, but James told her that it was because they haven't decorated it yet. Lily looked hesitant. Were they allowed to decorate this room however they wanted? James seemed to read her mind and told her that last year, the heads have decorated it with their house colors and posters.

"How _do_ you know so much about these things?" Lily questioned. James replied by saying that a Marauder never reveals his secrets. Lily huffed and sent James an annoyed glare. She then remembered another question she wanted to ask him.

"Do you still like me?" Lily inquired. James nonchalantly said, "Yes." At this, Lily's expression became unreadable. The classic poker face. Lily was quite good at it, actually.

"Do you like the fact that I like you?" he asked hesitantly. He looked at Lily with a hopeful gleam in his eyes. She wanted to say no, she really did. But she could not bring herself to say it to him. Curse his brilliant puppy eyes.

"Well, I used to hate it, but not so much now." she stated, satisfied with her reply. She did very well under pressure, she complimented herself.

James looked at Lily and found that she had a smile on her face. He thought her smile was immensely cute, but then again Lily was never not-cute. He couldn't help but put a cheesy grin on his face. It was amazing, they were alone. In the head common room. His heart leapt when he realized that there would be more of this, _they_ were the two heads.

"Stop smiling!" Lily exclaimed, still, she was smiling herself. She felt a blush rising to her cheeks, its cause unknown. She managed to persuade herself that the reason that she was blushing was because it was hot. Lily debated whether to ask James why he liked her. But before she got to the question, James declared that he had to pack, and he went into his room.

As soon as he entered his room, he threw himself on his bed. James started thinking about Lily. He could tell that she felt something else, he could see it in her eyes, but he did not want to push her. After all, he wasn't even sure what she was feeling towards him. Over summer, he had done a lot of thinking about his feeling towards Lily. He really liked her, maybe even loved her! But he couldn't do anything until Lily felt the same way. He decided to take a different approach. He decided to support her this time. He decided not to humiliate her with his love poems anymore. Last year, he had gotten on civil terms with her, and it was all thanks to Moony. His good friend had managed to influence Lily into thinking that James wasn't half the bad person she thought he was. He wasn't about to push her into losing everything he had worked for. (It was actually what Remus had worked for)

He grimaced at a certain memory popped up in his head.

 _"Evans!" 4rd year James yelled. It was a hot, summer day. Due to the fact that it was a Saturday, Lily was dipping her feet in the lake with her friends and relaxing in the sun. James ran to her and tapped her, quite hard, on her shoulder._

 _Lily turned around and frowned at the boy standing in front of her. "Go away, Po-"_

 _"Just listen, 'kay?" James pleaded. The girls with Lily all giggled and exchanged glances, as if to say, "Here's James again, let's see what he planned today to embarrass Lily." Lily let out an exasperated sigh. James ignored all this and pulled out a paper from his pocket._

 _"To my Lily." he started. The giggling got louder._

 _I know you're no fond of me,_

 _but will you please go out with me?_

 _I've only hexed Snape once today,_

 _and to say this I came a long way._

 _I love you." he ended._

 _"Bravo. And how long did it take for your tiny brain to come up with this?" Lily said, her voice dripping with sarcasm._

 _"Well actually, the smaller your brain is, the smarter you are. I read it in a muggle book." James said proudly. He had researched this last night, he wanted some kind of witty comeback. And Lily did call his brain small often._

 _"I'll only say this once. I won't repeat it." Lily said, not paying any attention to James's comeback._

 _"Yes?" James asked hopefully._

 _"Get lost."_

 _"Where? Into your eyes?"_

 _"No." she spat._

 _"If you insist." James said and tried to hide his bruised pride._

James thought of this memory and wished he could erase this day from existence. It was humiliating, now that he thought of it. He grimaced as more mortifying memories bubbled up from the dark chambers of his mind. He tried to distract himself by getting his clothes out of his big wooden chest. He folded them, well 'crumple' would be a more suitable word for what he was doing.

Lily was also in her room and was unpacking, too. Since she had the woman's touch, she was able to organize her clothes neatly in her closet. She was able to finish quickly because she had folded all her clothes and then put them in her suitcase to bring to Hogwarts. When her stomach sent her the pee signal, she went into her bathroom.

"Wow." she managed to say. Her bathroom was...humongous. There was a bathtub resembling a swimming pool with a mermaid statue on the side, spewing water out of its mouth. She touched the mermaid's head in wonder.

"Hey! Mind the hair please!" the mermaid yelled in a shrill voice. Lily screamed a long and high note. She had seen mermen before, but she had never seen a statue of a mermaid that talked. Considering the other inanimate objects that moved and talked in Hogwarts, this was not surprising. It still didn't change the fact that Lily was shocked by this. More importantly, it was in the _bathroom_. The place where she took off all her clothes and showered. Her urge to bathe in the tub dissolved into vapor.

After hearing Lily's shriek, James burst into her room and went the bathroom. He found Lily gaping at a statue of a mermaid. "Lily, why are you screaming at this mer-"

"Hi there." the mermaid said to James flirtingly. James stared at the mermaid. It talked to him. Oh. That was why Lily had screamed. He forgot to mention the mermaid in the bath.

"Would you like to-" the mermaid started, but was interrupted by James.

"I'm not interested in stone mermaids, sorry." he said.

The mermaid rolled her eyes and let out a 'harrumph.' She turned her back to them and Lily ran out of the shower, afraid it would do more than turn her back to them. Who knew? Maybe the mermaid had mystical powers! But it seemed that she was in a rush to get out, she failed to avoid the puddle of water in front of her. She slipped, and I am sad to say that it was not a graceful slip. She landed on her stomach and she winced at the pain. James rushed to her side and tried to help her up, but Lily slapped James's hand away.

"I'm not a child, Potter. I can stand up on my own, so don't offer your bloody hand to me." Lily ordered. James raised one of his eyebrows and said, "It's not my hand that's bloody." Lily's eyes flew to her leg, which was throbbing and causing her more pain than the other parts of her body. She learned that not only was it throbbing, but it was bleeding. She had fallen on a step that was conveniently in front of the puddle.

"Shit." she cursed. James's eyebrows climbed up his forehead and disappeared under his bangs.

"Since when does Lily Evans, head girl, curse?" James teased her with a smirk that was shot down by Lily's glare. She unsuccessfully tried to stand up. She instantly fell down again, and James was choking down a laugh as Lily flailed around.

"If let out that laugh, I assure you that it'll be the last thing you do." Lily threatened. James apologized, but it was clearly meaningless. He help her up and this time, Lily did not refuse him. He held her waist tightly and she had her left arm around his neck for support. He looked at the foot she was currently limping on.

"Did you sprain it?" he asked. Lily nodded as she bit her lower lip out of the pain her right foot was causing her. He went to her bed and she sat down on it. He kneeled down and inspected her foot. Lily clutched at her school robes, it was baggy.

"Don't worry, I won't look up your robes." James reassured her. He held her foot gently in his hands. Lily pulled out her wand to try and heal it. James grabbed the tip of her wand and stopped her. He pulled out his own and Lily swatted his hand away from her wand.

"I can do it myself." Lily insisted. "I'm not too shabby at charms."

"I got a higher score on it, if I remember correctly." he said and instantly regretted saying this. If Lily Evans had a sensitive spot, it would be anything concerning school-work.

"Hey! We were neck and neck every time! You barely managed to stay above me! I made mistakes, so what! This isn't your foot, James, it's mine, so-"

"You just called me James." he said, a smile rising to his face.

"Well it's your name, isn't it. And besides it slipped out." Lily tried to convince him.

If James heard this comment, he didn't show it. "You didn't call me Potter. You said my first name. I think we're going to be the best of friends, yes?" he said, adding the last part as a joke. Lily took this chance to heal her foot. It was successful! The next thing she did was usher him out of her room. She looked at her watch and saw that it was getting late, 9:24 pm. Tomorrow was her first day of 7nd year. She went into the bathroom once again, a bit doubtful, and peed her long-delay pee.

James was overjoyed. It was the first time Lily Evans had called him by his first name. No matter how hard he tried, he could not hold back the grin from taking over his face. He brushed his teeth and went to sleep, his smile never leaving his face.

Lily, however, was finding it hard to sleep. Why was James so happy with her calling him by his first name. It's not like she hadn't done it before. She then realized that she had never called him 'James.' Wow. She really was a horrible little girl. She had never called him by his name. After all he did for her. He did humiliate her, but he managed to do rather sweet things, too. She muttered an apology to James and slowly drifted off to sleep.

 **Thanks for reading! And if you found any mistakes/typos, please review and I will fix it as soon as I can. You are also very welcome to review and tell me what you thought about this. I hope I don't sound like a needy writer. If I did, a thousand sorrys.**


	3. Chapter 3 : Snivellus

**Hi! I started a new story, it's called First Times and it's a collection of oneshots about James and Lily's first times. I would really be happy if you guys went and checked it out.**

Chapter 3 : Snivellus

Lily woke up to the sound of her alarm clock. She had bewitched it to yell, "Wake up, Lily! You're going to be late." the day before. Now, she buried her head in her pillow and wondered why on earth she put the spell on it.

Groaning, she turned it off and checked the time. It was 6:30, and Lily had one hour to get ready. (Breakfast started at 7:30 am) She unwillingly dragged herself out of her bed and trudged to her bathroom. When she went it, the mermaid snickered at her, seeing Lily's crusty eye-booger and wild tame of hair. Lily said some rude things to the mermaid which caused said mermaid to be offended and turn her back to her with a huff. Lily did not care enough to apologize, so she didn't and she took a shower. She then stood in front of the foggy mirror and dried her hair.

Since she did not bring her robes with her to the bathroom, she decided to wrap a towel around herself instead of wearing her pajamas. She came out of the bathroom and shivered at the sudden cold air. At that moment, James chose to rattle her doorknob.

Lily froze. She had nothing on, just a towel to barely cover her. What if he burst in. Her mind turned white.

"Lily, I can't open this! Do you have a spare towel?" James yelled. " _Oh thank Merlin and McGonagall._ " Lily thought as yesterday's memories flooded back to her. James was not able to come into her room!

"Just a sec! I'm getting dressed at the moment!" Lily shouted back. On the other side of the door, James felt his face heat up. Thank goodness the charm prevented James from entering Lily's room. If there had not been the charm, he would have burst in while she was getting dressed.

Lily threw her school robes on and opened her room door. James was sitting on the couch and she went over to him and gave him one of her towels. She could see that his hair was wet. She asked him politely why he hadn't used magic to dry his hair.

"Potter, are you an idiot? There's a spell for drying you hair, you know?"

James explained that the spell caused his hair to be flat. "Using a towel to dry it makes it very messy." he said in a 'duh' tone. Lily rolled her eyes, it was so like James to mess up his hair purposely.

He rubbed the towel against his hair and within minutes, it was dry. "Can we go eat now? I'm starving." Lily spoke, her stomach growling in agreement. James nodded and they went to the Great Hall.

Lily found Alice and Samantha, and sat next to them. The Marauders were sitting across them, and if Lily's boy radar was correct, Black was flirting with Samantha.

"You know, Sammy, you have the greenest eyes ever." Sirius said, obviously trying to be suave. Samantha rolled her eyes.

"I have blue eyes, green eyes are Lily. And don't call me Sammy." Samantha replied, picking up a pink muffin a plate. Sirius looked annoyed and the slightest bit uncomfortable.

"Will you go out with me?" Sirius asked Samantha. It was clear that he had been bursting to say this. He looked at Samantha with hope in his eyes.

"Will you stop bothering me, then?"

"Of course."

"Whatever." she replied and Sirius beamed while Peter stared at him with admiration. Sirius basked in Peter's silent praise.

"What's happening?" Lily whispered in Alice's ear. Alice whispered back, "I don't know, but I think Sam just accepted a date request from Black. He's been bothering Sammy for about 20 minutes now, and you know how she doesn't let anything in between her food and herself. She probably doesn't even know what she said yes to Black."

James looked at Sirius and demanded an explanation. Sirius explained that Samantha was now his girlfriend. James slapped him on the back, smirking at him. Samantha looked up, piewhacked. Since when was she Black's girlfriend? Sirius smirked back. When James noticed that Lily looked lost, he whispered to her that Sirius had been interested in Samantha for about a month.

Lily decided not to get involved in this, nothing good ever come out of butting into other people's businesses. She ate toast with strawberry jam and sipped cocoa from her mug.

"Do you like hot-chocolate?" James asked her. Alice answered instead of Lily.

"She's obsessed with anything related to chocolate, James."

"I'll keep that in mind." James replied as he made a mental note to get Lily chocolate in the future. Lily was the first to stand up, she told them that she wasn't that hungry. Samantha gaped at her as if she had grown another head.

"But, you'll starve, Lily! A piece of bread doesn't fill your stomach!" Samantha started as she lectured Lily about the consequences of not eating the balanced breakfast one should eat. Lily stopped her mid-sentence.

"I've heard this like a hundred times, Sam. I don't need to hear it again." Lily said.

She headed to the potions classroom and was greeted warmly by Professor Slughorn. "Hello, Lily!" he exclaimed, a jolly smile lighting up his face. Lily returned the smile and said hello. To be honest, Professor Slughorn made her uncomfortable, since he showed that he favored her. But, he was a good teacher and she guessed that's what mattered the most.

"So I've that you're head girl!" Slughorn boomed with a satisfied smile on his face. "I'm always telling you, you should have been in my house!"

"I'm happy in Gryffindor, Professor!" she joked, as some other students came in. The Slytherin students glared at her, and she remained dignified, these jerks gave her no reason to be flustered. Among them were Severus Snape, who glared at her the most. At this Lily became a little bitter, she used to be such good friends with Severus. But he had chosen his way and she had chosen hers. There was nothing either of them could do about it, and both of them were painfully aware. Lily was sorry to say that this did not do a good job of ending their friendship on civil terms.

Lily went to sit in the seat she favored, it was near the windows, but it did not have the blinding rays of sun. It was the perfect seat, she figured. When Alice came in, Lily motioned for Alice to sit in the seat next to her. Alice happily sat in the seat, and she started talking with Lily about Black.

"Why did he ask her out anyway?" Alice wondered aloud. Lily grinned and accused her of being jealous. "Don't be silly, Lily. I've got Frank!" Alice smiled at the thought of her beau. Samantha entered the room with Sirius trailing after her. Noticing that Sirius was holding her books, Lily taunted Samantha.

"Sammy's got a boyfriend, Sammy's got a boyfriend! He's carrying her books , he's carrying her books." Lily sang childishly. Samantha rolled her eyes, she had an habit of doing that whenever she was annoyed.

"Oh please, Black just stole by books out of my bag and insisted on holding them." Samantha huffed, though Lily saw that she was secretly pleased. It wasn't surprising, Sirius was good-looking, and girls of all years fancied him.

Samantha took the seat behind Lily and Sirius went and sat next to her. James came in with Remus and Peter and he casually sat in the seat next to Lily and in front of Sirius.

"Hey Lily, may I borrow a quill? I've broke all of mine having quill fights with Sirius." James asked. Lily handed him a quill. Alice grinned, Lily and James were friends now! It would only be a little while until they realized that they were meant to be and have little babies! She squealed happily and had a dazed look on her eyes. Lily slapped her arm, she knew that when Alice got this look on her face, she was imagining Lily and James together.

"Stop planning my wedding, will you?" Lily groaned. Sammy giggled at this and the Marauders stared at them. The confused boys exchanged looks of "what's this?" "girl stuff, probably" and "ew."

And Professor Slughorn started the class with a speech about N.E.W.T.s and whatnot. Lily wasn't really paying attention, James was trying to balance her quill on the space between his nose and mouth and it was an amusing sight. James was quite happy with having Lily's attention on him, and he tried being extra funny. At last, Lily grew tired of watching James and focused on what Slughorn was saying.

James was disappointed at the lack of her two brilliant green eyes on him, but he was also pleased. Since Lily was not paying him any attention, he was free to stare at her all he wanted. And he did. Sirius saw this and also saw the drool that was threatening to leak out of his mouth any second. Sirius, as James's best mate, whacked James's head with his hands and James came back to reality.

"-so you will pair up and make the love potion antidote. The instructions are on the board," Professor Slughorn waved his wand and writing appeared on the black-board, "and to make this interesting, I will have the boys choose girls for their partners." Groans rose up from the class. Slughorn ignored this and continued talking. "Starting with Frank Longbottom."

"I'll choose Alice as my partner." Frank announced. Alice cheerfully obliged and went to sit next to him. She beamed at him and he smiled shyly back. Lily though that they looked _so_ cute together.

Next was Sirius and he pointed to Samantha. Samantha groaned, and Lily felt sorry for her. It was common fact that Sirius wouldn't do anything, how he managed to scrape an E in potions, Lily did not know.

One by one, the boys chose and Lily still hadn't been called. A boy in Gryffindor named Neil Finnigan almost called her name, but he stopped and called on Ciara Bell. Lily was not aware that it was James who made Neil back down from calling Lily by glaring at him. It was James's turn now. "Please don't call me." Lily thought, she had to spend enough time with him as heads. She wanted a clever boy who would split up the work with her evenly, like Remus.

"Lily." James smirked, recognizing the expression on Lily's face as aversion. Others smirked with him. It was another common fact that James did not bother to hide his crush on Lily. James saw Snape wrinkling his face for a second, but it quickly faded.

Lily did not bother to move, she was sitting next to him. She looked at Remus, demanding help. Remus smiled sheepishly at her.

"Well, Lily dear, let's get started. I will get the ingredients." James said in a sickly-sweet tone. She kicked him in the groin and he winced. "So much for acting normal." James thought as he went to the cupboard to gather up the ingredients.

As he reached for a flask, someone snatched it out. James turned around, agitated, to face the person. He was standing face to face with Snape. Well, not exactly face to face. More like face to nose, he was taller than Snape.

"Let's at least try to be civil." James sighed. Even though he disliked Snape with every bone in his body, he had to prove that he had matured (to Lily). Snape pretended not to have heard this and 'accidently' stepped on James's foot.

"Oops." Snape said with a bored look and it took James everything he had to stop himself from hexing Snape right in that spot. James calmly reached for another flask, but Snape whisked it out of the way.

"Did you want this, Avery?" Snape yelled to one of his so-called-friends. James bit his lips in anger as he tried to control it. He reached for another one, and Snape slammed the cupboard shut. James's fingers got stuck. He furiously pulled his pulsing fingers out and was about to utter some colorful words at Snape, but Lily beat him to it.

"Don't provoke James, Snape." Lily said, hatred dripping from her voice. James looked at her, awed. She was standing up for him.

"Mind your own business, mudblood." Snape replied back venomously. His words stabbed Lily in the chest, but she did not show it.

"Excuse me for breaking up a fight!"

"A fight that hadn't taken place."

"Yet!" she added to Snape's sentence. " You know you were about to!" Lily exclaimed.

Snape breezily walked back to his table and the other Slytherins high-fived him. James took Lily's hands in his own and squeezed it. "Don't mind them." he said.

Lily nodded and tried to seem cool, calm, and collected. She couldn't burst into tears anymore, she was in 7th year. James tried not to notice the hurt and anger bubbling in Lily's eyes.

 **Thanks for reading! I'll be back soon! *^^***


	4. Chapter 4 : Gilbert Blythe

**Hello! How are you? Please enjoy! *^^***

Chapter 4 : Gilbert Blythe

"Don't worry, I'll get Snivellus back for that. So. Do you want to start or..." James trailed off as he looked at Lily with a smile. Lily was glad that it wasn't a pity smile, but a genuine one. She grinned back at him, which made James smile even brighter. James's heart leapt at Lily's grin. It wasn't everyday that she would smile at _him_ , it was usually insults or glares.

Lily started brewing the potion and James stood next to her, handing ingredients to her. To her surprise, James handed her all the right materials! After exactly 21 minutes, Lily declared the potion finished. Slughorn strolled over and inspected the potion. He proclaimed it as perfection and patted Lily's head affectionately. He walked away, oblivious to James, waiting for a pat on the head, too.

James turned to her. "So what do we do now?"

Lily shrugged, then she reached into her bag and pulled out a small book. She opened to where the bookmark was, sat down in her chair, and started reading. James peered at the book cover. 'Anne of the Island' it read. James guessed that it was a muggle book, and he made a mental note to ask Remus about it later.

After a full quarter of an hour of staring at Lily reading, James decided that he wanted to talk. "Hey, Evans?"

She tore her eyes from the book. How like Potter to interrupt her when she was in the middle of reading the most exciting part. She sighed and look at him. "Yes?"

"You're reading." he gestured to her book. Lily rolled her eyes and told him that yes, she was reading a book. "Is it fun?" Lily nodded and the two were silent for a moment. Lily took this as a sign that the conversation was over and opened up her book again.

Oh how she absolutely loved Gilbert! So handsome and kind and funny and caring. She honestly thought Anne was an idiot for refusing his countless proposals to be friends, and later on, more than friends. She let out an over exaggerated sigh, those fictional character were not real. It was no use being bitter about things that didn't exist. After a few minutes, she felt James's stare and she looked up from her book. "What?!"

"Tell me what it's about."

"Why?"

"Because I've been wanting to take up muggle literature for some time now, but I just didn't know where to start. And I thought I should come to you for advice, but you despised me then, so it wasn't an option. I also want to know why you're eyes light up." James concluded, looking satisfied with his answer. Lily raised her eyebrows at him. Potter? Take up muggle reading? Nonsense. But being the more mature one, Lily started to tell him.

"Well there's this girl named Anne. She's got red hair and a bit of a temper, but she's got a bubbly, talkative personality. She's good at making friends and she is a very interesting girl in general. She's also very good at her studies and her best friend is named Diana. And she met a boy named Gilbert in school. When she first met him, the two were both young, so they got in fights, but then her hatred for Gilbert fades as she gets older." Lily described, remembering the first book of the series. James looked a bit lost, but he looked happy with her explanation nonetheless.

"Tell me more about this Gilbert bloke."

"He's got dark colored hair and has chocolate brown eyes. He's mischievous, but he's also very funny and good-looking, which makes him very popular with girls. He's been wanting to get Anne's attention from day one, and I think it's safe to say that he's her love interest." she said, her eyes lighting up once again, from talking about him.

"You like him, don't you?" James accused. Lily, seeing nothing wrong with this, admitted that she was rather fond of him. "What's not to like?" she demanded defensively. As James was about to answer, Slughorn announced that the class was over. Lily gather up her things and stuffed them into her bag. Then she left with her friends, Samantha and Alice.

James threw all of his belongings carelessly into his bag and rushed to Remus.

"Moony!" he greeted Remus. "You read, don't you?"

Remus took this as an insult. "Of course I read!" he defended himself. James had a knack for words, didn't he?

"Have you read the book about Anne and Gilbert and whatever?" James questioned, silently hoping his reply would be 'yes.'

"I have." Remus said, eyeing James suspiciously. Why would James Potter, the bloke who refused to do his homework, ask about a muggle book that would appeal to mainly girls? Oh wait, he knew why. "Why?" he asked anyway.

"Tell me everything about this Gilbert character."

At first, Remus refused, saying he had to get to the next lesson. James told him that 2nd period was a free period. Then, Remus tried to blame it on homework, which led to James pointing out that it was their first day.

Remus was no idiot. He knew how much Lily loved Gilbert Blythe, yes, he knew. He had become good friends with her and he often studied with her, their time together was a secret from James, of course. He also knew that James, no matter how hard he tried, would fail in trying woo Lily by acting like Gilbert, James was a horrible actor. And he knew that it would only end in conflict, and when Lily yelled at James for ruining her favorite character of all times, James would use _him_ as a shield. Remus decided it was best for him to not get involved in James's and Lily's messsy relationship.

James, on the other hand, thought that if smarty-pants-Moony helped him, he would succeed. So he did not give up trying to convince his unwilling friend, and eventually, Remus gave in. Sadly, when they made the pact that Remus would help James, 2nd period was over. And they had to go to Transfiguration.

The rest of the school day was the same as usual. The only unusual thing that happened was when a fellow 7th year Gryffindor fell off his chair and got his nose broken. (He was eyeing Lily and so James pushed him off his chair)

And the hours flew by and before you could know it, it was time to eat dinner.

"Lily! Over here!" Alice yelled, flailing her arms so Lily could spot her in the sea of students in the Grand Hall. Lily, who had easily spotted Alice's flailing, rushed over to where her friend was. She squeezed in the small seat her friends had saved for her.

Lily had been in the library, studying with Remus. "Really, Transfiguration homework!" Lily exclaimed, "on the first day! I managed to finish it, with the help of a fabulous book and Remus. It's really hard, just telling you. I have the book if you want to borrow it later." Alice said that she would rather borrow Lily's finished essay, and Lily replied back, "Maybe." Samantha, who was not participating in the conversation, was digging into a piece of lasagna.

"Guys. This lasagna is heavenly." Samantha moaned, urging Lily to try it. Lily tried to take a bit out of Samantha's plate, but her food obsessed friend blocked it with her arms, clearly not willing to share. "Get your own."

Lily grinned and accomplished in breaking down Samantha's arm walls. Samantha stuck her lower lip out and declared war on Lily, then she pelted Lily with pieces of candy. Alice rolled her eyes at her two friend's immature behavior.

The four first year boys sitting in front of them suddenly stood up. Samantha saw that their plate still had food on it and she began to scold the boys for not eating all their food. "Do you know how much the house elves have suffered to make this food?" she started, "Why I oughta owl your mums, they would not be-"

"We have to go! They're coming!" one of the four said as he pointed behind the girls. All three of them turned around. The Marauders were coming their way. When the girls turned back, the four were gone.

"Please tell me they're not coming our way! Why are they following us around?!" Alice sighed as the Marauders plopped down across them. "Hello." she said feebly.

Sirius and James grinned at her, while Remus waved. Peter said, "Hello" back. Lily glared at James. "Stop following us!" she ordered. Sirius explained that he had to sit with his girlfriend, or she would cry. Samantha rolled her eyes and shot him the middle finger. Sirius told her he loved her, too.

"So Carrots," James started. Remus exhaled loudly. There was no way this could end well. "how often are we going to change _our_ portrait password?" Lily looked stunned.

"Excuse me?" Lily stuttered. "Don't call me carrots."

"I will."

"I'll quit being Head Girl, then. I refuse to share a dorm with an ignorant toerag."

"No you won't."

Lily was close to exploding with annoyance. No one, and she repeated, NO ONE made fun of Gilbert Blythe. "Just don't. Please, Potter. You're ruining him." James had to grace to look innocent.

The seven started eating their dinner. Remus asked Lily if she had finished her essay, and she replied back that she had. She thanked him and said that she was glad he was her friend. James looked annoyed, but to his sadness, no one paid attention to him. Sirius was getting yelled at, he had disrupted Samantha's eating, and Peter was stuffing truffles in his mouth. The dinner ended quickly and Samantha was the first to rise.

"I have to take a walk. Does anyone wish to join me?" Samantha asked. Lily and Alice were used to this. Every two days, Samantha would talk a walk outside after dinner. Sirius raised his hands. Samantha hesitated for a moment, then she allowed him. Sirius got up happily and followed Samantha.

James reminded Lily that they had to go meet Dumbledore and McGonagall for Heads duties.

"I'm done eating. Do you want me to wait for you?" Lily asked. Her stomach was on the verge of cracking open, she had taken one too many pieces of lasagna. Those house elves were excellent cooks. James said no, that he was finished, too. They walked out together.

"Any chance they'll get together this year?" Alice asked Remus.

"I'm not sure." was his reply. Alice nodded in agreement. How could Lily not see that James was the man for her? That Gilbert she's been raving about for years, he was standing in front of her! Lily could be so _thick_ when it came to these stuff.

Said thick-girl was heading up to Dumbledore's study. (The password was chocolate frogs) When she approached the door, it opened. Dumbledore was on the other side and so was Professor McGonagall.

"Good Evening, Mr. Potter, Miss Evans." Dumbledore said with a warm smile. Lily greeted him back and James shook hands with him. "Now, heads have many responsibilities, but am I correct in assuming that Professor McGonagall has explained most of them?" James and Lily nodded. "Then I will give you your first job : organize the schedule for the prefect meetings, you _are_ aware that you two will be leading them? Also, you will be in charge on the graduation ceremony. That is it for today, I bid you a good night." Dumbledore said. He smiled at them and waved his long bony hand.

James promptly nodded and Lily thanked them. "Goodbye!" Lily said and she went out the door. They both walked silently to their dorm.

"Gryffindor." Lily said and the portrait swung open to let them in. Lily sat down on the couch and smoothed down her school robes and skirt. "Let's get down to business."

James raised his eyebrows and he took his tie off and started unbuttoning his shirt. "Alright." he said playfully. Lily slapped his head.

"Not that, idiot. The prefects meeting!" she reminded him, agitated. Trust Potter to make crude jokes. James smirked at her flustered expression. He loved it when she was like that. Her nostrils would flare a bit and her face would slowly turn a tinge of pink. Her eyes would be wide, like two emeralds blinking innocently at him.

"Nooooo" was his reply back to her. He explained that he just wanted to talk. Lily let out a short exhale of annoyance and racked her brain for a useful excuse. She found out that she had nothing better to do, and she accepted his offer.

"So. How was summer?" he asked her, carefully studying her. He wondered if she would bring up his countless letters to her. He hoped she would.

"Nice, I suppose. My sister got married so I had to help her get her stuff out of the house. She's moving in with her husband." Lily explained. So this was what they were going to talk about? Summer vacation? She had to say, she was a bit disappointed.

"Is he more good-looking then me?" James asked about Dursley, Petunia's husband.

Lily snorted. "No, he's like a walrus." she said. James's eyes lit up at this. "And don't be too happy with this, it's not a complement. Even Pettigrew's more handsome than him." James smiled.

"Reading my mind, huh? I got to say, Evans, I'm impressed." said James in a lofty voice. 'Read my mind now, Lily, I LOVE YOU.' he thought. "Did you get my letters? You didn't respond." He said again.

"Oh, those? Yeah, I was planning on burning them, but Petunia got a hold on one and she got terribly jealous. I can't blame her, her husband can barely string two words together." Lily said, shrugging her shoulders. "You didn't mean them, you were probably off snogging some girl." she stated, a hint of bitterness in her words. The letters were as sweet as letters could be, but they were clearly false. There was no way that James Potter wrote that for her.

James looked at her like she had sprouted another head. "Of course I meant them, why would you even ask that? And don't accuse me of snogging some girls, I poured my feelings into those letters. Nice to see that I was of some help to you." he asked, bitterness now obvious in his voice. Didn't she ever listen to his rants about how he loved her? Did she forget how many times he asked her out?

Lily looked shocked at his sudden outburst and his immediate change in expression and behavior. The playful gleam in his eyes were gone and were replaced by longing, bitterness, and anger. She quickly apologized. "Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. I just thought-"

"Just what? Just thinking I was joking, or am I wrong." James interrupted. He could understand if she had thrown them away, but thinking he was lying? Stating that he was snogging girls when he was actually pondering over what to send in the next letters. He couldn't believe this. He, James Potter, had just spent about 2 hours, talking to Moony about _Gilbert_ , a fictional character that she adored. He had wondered on what he would say. And here she was, accusing him that his feeling were false, just for show.

James stood up and stomped over to his room. He slammed the door shut, leaving a very confused Lily outside.

 **Any ideas on what should happen next? Any requests? (crickets chirping) Ok, then. Good-bye(says sadly and trudges away)**


	5. Chapter 5 : Anger, Guilt and Making Up

**I've been away for a long time, no? Well I was focusing on a new story. T.T Sorry. I have a new chapter, though! (Obviously.) I actually had about 85% of this chapter written, but I was too lazy to wrap it up. And just reminding you, I'm not finished with this story, yet. ^^**

Chapter 5 : Anger, Guilt, and Making up

Lily sat on the couch, bewildered. She tried to relive what had just happened. She was pretty sure that she hadn't really said anything that harsh, she was just telling him what was true. Or was it true? If James had meant the letter, every word of it, she guess what she said was very cruel, but he didn't mean them, did he?

"What if he did mean it?" she thought to herself and a train of thoughts followed. After 5 minutes of thinking, she got to the conclusion that she had acted in a very nasty way.

"But he shouldn't have stormed off." she thought bitterly, trying to blame James for this, "If he stay and we talked about it civilly, this could have been prevented. She admitted that she did wrong, but what was she suppose to think? The person who wrote those letters were sweet and romantic, but in her opinion, that was _definitely_ not James Potter.

As Lily argued with herself, James was trying to cool down. He grabbed his broomstick and stormed outside. Lily jumped at his sudden appearance, but he paid no attention to her. He opened the portrait door and stalked out the door. He went up to the Gryffindor boy's dormitory, he took out some of his anger out on some 2nd years on the way, and he burst into where his friends were.

"Get your brooms." James said. Sirius raised his eyebrows, but did as he was told. He was familiar with James's tone of voice and what he demanded. He would fly outside when he was mad, and he, Sirius Black, was his flying buddy, as well as his best friend.

Sirius looked at Remus and Peter. Peter shook his head weakly, he was afraid of heights, and Remus said no thank you. Sirius let out a sigh and jogged to catch up with James. James pulled his invisibility cloak out of his robes and he draped it on both of them.

"Filch is in on the 2nd floor, patrolling the west wing." Sirius said as he glanced at the Marauder's map. James nodded stiffly, Sirius rolled his eyes. What did Evans do, now?

They snuck out of the castle undetected and got on their brooms. They flew to the Quidditch field and began to fly in circles around the Quidditch field at an alarmingly fast speed.

James started to curse fluently. Sirius strained his ears to hear his hot-headed friend over the sound of the winds rushing past and heard something about bloody red-heads. So it _was_ the Evans girl.

James flew even faster. Even though he could barely see anything in the dark, he had memorized every crook of the field, so he was confident about flying. The speed, no matter how fast it was, wasn't satisfying for James at the moment and he gained even more speed.

"Mate, slow down!" Sirius yelled, James was going too fast. At the rate he was going, he wasn't going to be able to stop. Sirius couldn't catch up, and he stopped himself from even trying. He went back down and he inhaled as he tried to breath normally. Eh, he would leave James alone. He would tire himself out eventually. He sat on a bench and patiently waited for James. After all, what were best friends for?

James continued to yell. No one would know, the field was far enough from the castle, that he would be breaking the rules and sneaking out to scream in the Quidditch field. He closed his eyes and let out a flood of colorful words. Why did Evans have to assume the worst about him? After everything he had done to please her, she had never even gave him a chance. It was always 'No, Potter', and he was tired of it. Maybe they weren't meant to be. Maybe he really didn't have a chance with her. As much as he hated to think about these things, maybe this was a sign that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't please her. No. He refused to think about this. His love for Lily had started out as a small crush, but it had morphed into something bigger and he couldn't give up now. He knew that he if he did give her up, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

Still, James was frustrated. She had hurt him. Her words had sunk like knives and they refused to leave his mind. While he pondered on this, his broom had gained even more speed. James poked his head out of the endless thoughts of Lily and he saw something in front of him. It was a stand. Huh, was he flying that low? He must have gotten lower while he was thinking. Then, it hit him. He was about to crash.

"Shit." he thought, just before he crashed into the stands and slipped into unconsciousness.

Ten minutes earlier, Lily was getting up from the couch. She had to find him and apologize. She couldn't just wait for James to come back, she didn't have any right to wait for him to come to her first. So for the first time in her life, Lily Evans stood up to search for James Potter, willingly this time.

"Okay, so he had his broom." she muttered to herself. She stopped. Was she allowed to be out at this time of night? It didn't matter, that wasn't important. She resumed walking and she got out of the castle. She shivered in the wind, she had nothing but her school robes on and the cold night wind was not kind to her vulnerable body. She ignored the cold and she jogged to the Quidditch field. "Please be there." she murmured. And as she got closer, she heard a crash.

She ran there, assuming the worst. What if James had been an accident? "No," she told herself, "James is a skilled flyer, he would be able to prevent that." Still, worry got the better of her and when she got there, she recognized a figure on the other side.

She dashed over and saw that someone else was already beside him.

"James!" she gasped as she knelt beside him. Sirius glared at her. "Why are you here?" he spat as he searched his memory for a healing spell. Lily ignored this comment. She put James head on her lap and saw that he was seriously hurt. His leg was twisted in a weird way and his arm was throbbing. He had a bump on his forehead, and blood ran down his face. She examined his legs once again and saw the deep gash where blood was oozing out of.

"Let's get him to the infirmary." Lily said to Sirius.

"What are we going to tell them? That we snuck outside to the Quidditch field for a night fly?" Sirius demanded. "Don't you know any healing charms? Didn't you get all Os?"

Lily nodded. She did know a few healing charms, but she wasn't a master at that. "Should I give it a go?" she questioned.

Sirius nodded as Lily got her wand out of her pocket. As she was about to cast the spell, he stopped her. "If James dies because of your spell, I will hurt you." he said seriously.

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the pep-talk." Lily glowered at him and turned her attention back to James. His forehead was beaded with sweat. "Velnera Sanentur." she flicked her wrist towards the gash on his leg. It immediately closed. "Ferula." she said again and his arm and leg moved back to their original positions.

Sirius looked relieved. "I could kiss you right now." he told her and smirked at her bewilderment. "Please restrain yourself from doing so." she told him and smiled back. The two sat in silence, both checking out James's healed injuries. There was still blood on his robes. Sirius looked at Lily again.

"Sorry, but do you happen to know a warming charm?"

"Yeah, I'll cast it on all of us." She muttered a spell under her breath and Sirius felt warmth immediately. "Thanks." he said awkwardly. The charm must have been good, Sirius thought, color was starting to return to James's pale face.

After a few minutes, James's eyelashes fluttered. He opened his eyes to find two blurry figures. He rubbed his hand over his eyes and opened them again. "My glasses." he croaked. Lily summoned his broken glasses and repaired them. She handed them to him and he put it on. He stared at the two figures sitting before him.

"Evans?" he asked, forgetting his anger towards her. Sirius looked annoyed and cleared his throat to alert his mate of his presence. James shook his arms and legs. "Huh. Nothing hurts."

"She mended them." Sirius said, gesturing to Lily. It took James a second for his brain to process the fact that Lily had healed him. He stared at her and Lily looked uncomfortable under his gaze. Without another moment going to waste, he hugged her.

Lily froze. "James Potter is hugging me." she thought. She hugged him back. Sirius tapped his foot impatiently. When they didn't break apart, Sirius took matters into his own hands. He wrapped them up in his arms and squeezed them, he wanted a hug, too.

The three broke apart and both Lily and James were blushing.

"I was cold." said James, who thought of it as an excuse.

"Warming charm." Sirius replied and James blushed even harder. Well. This was awkward.

Lily stood up and announced that they had to go in. Sirius and James nodded in return. They walked silently to the castle and said their good-nights at their parting point. Sirius went up to the Gryffindor common room.

When Lily and James got to the portrait leading to their dorms, they whispered the password and it swung open. As Lily was about to go into her room, James stopped her.

"No. Don't go in. We have to talk."

Lily said a small 'okay' and she sat down on the chair.

James wondered where to start. He was furious at Lily, but his anger had something to do with him, too. He had made her feel that was, in other words, he had caused her to be doubtful. Did he have to right to be angry at her in the first place? Even if he decided he did have to right, could he be mad at her now? She had just saved her life, maybe not his life, but he did not want to think about what would have happened if she was not there. And he had hugged her, minutes before. While he thought about this matter, Lily was sitting uncomfortably under James's gaze. He hadn't meant to stare at her, he was lost in space. What should he say? He regretted telling her to stay, but it was too late now.

Lily looked down at her shoes. She couldn't make eye contact with him. No, she refused to embarrass herself anymore. She had cradled his head in her lap and she had showed that she worried over him. This was an all time low for Lily Evans, Potter-hater. She had originally planned to go to her room and yell in her pillow, unfortunately Potter had to tell her to stay. She should have refused him and went into her room when she had the chance. Well, someone had to start the conversation. Lily Evans, who guessed that she couldn't embarrass herself any further, started it.

"I'm sorry for...you know...what I said earlier, I honestly had no idea. But I also want to say thank you for the letters." she managed to stutter out. She sent him a glance to see if he approved of her apology. She let out a breath, he seemed to be pleased.

"I want to apologize, too. For over-reacting. And...uh...have I said thank you for saving my life?" he asked awkwardly. Thank goodness Lily had the nerves to start the conversation. What kind of Gryffindor was he? Being afraid to strike up a conversation with a girl. 'Hey! Lily Evans can be intimidating.' he thought, defending himself. 'No. You were the one being intimidating.' The annoying voice in his voice said matter of factly.

"I don't think so." she said after a pause.

"Well thanks, Evans. And I'm really sorry for being a git, I'm not usually like this." he replied.

Lily raised her eyebrows and she grinned. "I find that hard to believe, James."

James grinned back. "Believe it or not, I'm not that git that you believe I am, Lils." Lily smiled and hit him playfully. "Is that so?" she asked. Wait, was she flirting with James Potter? What was she doing?

James leaned his body closer to her. "Yes, Lily." he whispered. Lily could feel herself tensing, but she did not move a muscle. He leaned in closer to her. Now they would feel each other's breaths.

This was way too slow. Lily firmly planted her lips on his. James was surprised by her sudden action, but he was in no way unhapppy.

He deepened the kiss and he put his hand on her waist. She let her hands go up to ruffle his already messy hair. When they broke apart, they were both smiling like fools.

 **Thanks to everyone who read! luv u all!**


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